RealGM

With so much optimism for the 2013 season, this forum will likely become busier with more posts and regular posters. Half roll call/half self-intro, maybe this is a good time to share when and why you became a Jays fan.

Here's mine:

I'm born in HK, came here when I was 8 in 1988. I never followed professional sports in Hong Kong. Immediately, I started being a fan of the Lakers, Suns, 49ers, Leafs and the Jays. Can't blame a kid for following winning teams, right? But, baseball was an alien sport. It took me a few years before I understood what a force out was, why runners were hovering off the base before the pitch, what R, H, and E stood for, etc. The spitting too, why so much spitting?

1989 came, and the Jays played Oakland for the ALCS. I still remember Canseco's moonshot in Skydome, and how much I hated the As. The player I hated most was Eck and his stache. He looked scary AND evil. During 1990, 1991, I started to understand the game better. Collecting baseball cards obviously helped. Upper Deck Rookie Cards of Mo Vaughn, Todd Van Poppel, Steve Karsay, Ben McDonald, Frank Thomas, Chipper Jones, and even Michael Jordan hooked me in from 91. Somewhere in between was the Alomar and Carter deal. I had no idea who Alomar and Carter was until I checked my card collection. It was my version of "Google" back then.

Then came 92. The Alomar home run in Oakland in the ALCS vs Eck (!!!). Ed Sprague's home run in gm 2 of the World Series. The Catch. Missed triple play. Morris crapping the joint when the entire city was ready for the series clincher. Then finally, in extra innings, Winfield collected his first extra base hit to drive in the game winning run. The final out came from Timlin to Carter with Carter jumping for joy. We all remembered where we were at that moment. Elation.

Rinse and repeat for 93, insert some WAMCO, Olerud flirting with the DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak, and William's .400 BA, and the season capped off with a walk off home run by Joe Carter.

Four years into being a fan of the Jays, and I already tasted the joys of two championships. Talk about being spoiled.

From 94 until now, it's been filled with disappointments, and few triumphs. If only the two WS wins could be spread out during that time period. Toronto went from being a big market team to a small market, then back to a big market team. Regardless, I've followed them every year, some more closely than others.

And now, with so much optimism coming from this offseason's moves, and with the Jays being one of the favourites to reach the playoffs, I can't wait for spring to come. No person chooses to pick their time as to when they start being fans of a team. It could be a player, a moment, or simply just location. If some fans' interests coincide with the Jays' good fortunes starting next season, maybe they'll have the same fan storyline as me, but hopefully with fewer disappointments along the way

I started watching during the Carlos Delgado haydays. Back when we had the likes of Shannon Stewart, Felipe Lopez, Raul Mondesi etc. I was much too young to be aware of the WS teams but as soon as I saw baseball at an age where I could understand it, I became super attached. My love for the game has only grown over the past few years.

I used to watch them when I was a kid, then I stopped and picked up again in 2006.

Hello, Im 17. Born in Canada, Started watching only a couple years back, 2009, When Halladay got traded. My cousins got me into it. I remember asking them questions every 2 seconds. Man, Ive mustve been frustrating

Hopefully we have a great season and go as far as we can!

I was 8 when the Jays won in 92, so naturally MLB was the first professional sport I started following. The Jays hold a special place in my sporting world. John Olerud was my favourite player at the time, and I still have his jersey stashed away. I really started watching a lot of games in 95 and on, which is unfortunately when things were not so great, but I still loved the team and still supported them in the tough times. Jacob Brumfield is one player that sticks out in my memory from that period for some reason lol.

After baseball, I realized that the best hockey players were Canadian, so my patriotism made hockey the second sport I started following. Then the Raptors when the came in 96, then the NFL.

During the Ernie Whitt, Barfield, Moseby days...

I'm 18 years old and a Sport Management student. I started watching them back in 2008, but I was a huge baseball fan before then, just never really committed to one team. My second favorite team is the Athletics, and I started being a Jays fan because the Jays were doing really well.

It is a really exciting time for the Blue Jays.

I was a fan from the inaugural season. I actually had the pleasure of being at the first home opener on my 11th birthday April 7, 1977.

Baseball was always the "second best" sport for me. When I was a kid, hockey was my favourite, then when I lost interest in hockey, basketball became my fave. Baseball was always stuck at 2nd.

But I've been following the Jays on and off for years. I'd say I really didn't start to really watch the Jays regularly until 2000 or so, when Halladay was just starting out. I certainly paid attention during the WS years, as anyone in Ontario would, and I watched a number of playoff games, but I wasn't super hardcore about it.

I still consider myself a casual fan, so I'll never pretend I know more about the Jays than anyone else here, because I don't.

Same as Duffman, from the Moseby, Bell, Barfield days.

I love baseball man. 162 games, almost always a game on every single day. It's throughout the summer, the best time of the year. Good tickets to go to a game really aren't that much, and now on top of all that, the team is awesome again. I'm super stoked for this season.

when the Expos moved south.
and I'm not even from Montreal.

TR50 wrote:I started watching during the Carlos Delgado haydays. Back when we had the likes of Shannon Stewart, Felipe Lopez, Raul Mondesi etc.

Same here.

Garmfay wrote:

TR50 wrote:I started watching during the Carlos Delgado haydays. Back when we had the likes of Shannon Stewart, Felipe Lopez, Raul Mondesi etc.

Same here.

Another one.

My favourite Jay used to be Alex Gonzales. Guy was studly.

Also Jose Cruz Jr.

I started watching baseball during the late 60's and early 70's. I was living in the USA when the Expos were added to the league and didn't follow them at all during those early years. I was born in Toronto and moved back to Canada a few years before Toronto got it's franchise. The rest, as they say, is his story...

OhMyBosh wrote:

Garmfay wrote:

TR50 wrote:I started watching during the Carlos Delgado haydays. Back when we had the likes of Shannon Stewart, Felipe Lopez, Raul Mondesi etc.

Same here.

Another one.

My favourite Jay used to be Alex Gonzales. Guy was studly.

Also Jose Cruz Jr.

Same here.
My mom was a huge fan in the 90s and watched the championship days, i didn't catch on until '03.

Back inthe mid to late 80 s. New i was hooked when them freekin Tigers came back and beat them in that season ending season and I was heart broken. I really started following them (and the Raps) when the Wpg Jets left. This ripped my heart out and caught the jays on the rebound.

My dad took me to games at Exhibition Stadium back in the day. '89 was my first real 'I remember' season. By '90 I was an obsessive stat kid with all the cards and guides and almanacs I could get my hands on. The All-Star Game in '91, followed by two 'Ships... so good. Somewhere in there I started getting that baseball was the Lord's sport and I just bought in to the history of 'America's Game'... started getting nostalgic as a pretentious adolescent lol

By the time the glorious Delgado, Green, Gonzalez era hit I was locked in. Up until a few years ago I hadn't gone a summer since I was born without at least one game taken in live. Sadly it's been patchy since, but I'm super excited for the team this year. Loved what AA did with our farm, and it's hard to lose those guys, but how can you look at this lineup/rotation and not get excited!??!

I'm gettin' ready for some loud-a$$, old-school GO JAYS GO! this year lol

YogiStewart wrote:when the Expos moved south.
and I'm not even from Montreal.

Exactly the same situation for me.

Although, I took a pass on the Expos' final season -- Selig refusing to let Montreal call up players in 2003 was the final straw for me.

Anyway, I was a big baseball fan even before that so I was always aware of what the Jays were doing, I just didn't have a heavy rooting interest until the Expos folded.

I can't remember the exact time. All I remember is going to games as a kid when guys like Jose Cruz, Alex Gonzalex and Carlos Delgado were here. I guess since I was born in Toronto I've always been a Jays fan. Even when they suck I watch at least 100 games a year. Basketball is my main love, but the Jays are always in my heart, and I can't stand the Leafs.